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To Laugh That We May Not Weep
A nearly forgotten cartoonist we need to look at -- right now!
Spiegelman, Art http://harpers.org/archive/2016/01/to-laugh-that-we-may-not-weep/
Publisher: Harper's
Date Written: 01/01/2016
Year Published: 2016
Resource Type: Article
Among the greatest American political cartoonist, Art Young had the ability to boil complex social issues down to memorable symbols, drawn with justifiable anger but permeated with genial warmth. His work would be an immeasurable asset today in explaining the realities of class war to its casualties.
Abstract:
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Excerpt:
Young were wearching for pictures that were coherent intellectually as well as formanlly. Saul Steinberg defined this difficult process as making an image that, once seen, can never be unseen -- and Young was a worldclass master at distilling his thoughts into unforgettable formulations. A cartoonist's power derives from its capacity to echo the ways our brains work. We think in small bursts of language and in stripped-down icons. (I once read that an infant can recognize a simple smiley face sooner than its mother's smile.) Young's images were understandable to all classes and embraced by a wide swath of the always-bickering left. Nowadays, satire and ridicule have effectively moved to late-night TV comedy, but it's the cartoonist's ability to essentialize that we so sorely need now. The Occupy movement might've had longer legs if it only had a great T-shirt designed by Art Young.
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